Medicine: Plagued

The sudden and unexpected death of a senior scientist at Britain's
top-secret germ-warfare laboratory cried out for explanation. The first
War Office announcement only stimulated curiosity. It was possible,
said a cautious official spokesman, that Geoffrey Bacon, 44, had been
killed by "an accidental infection resulting from his work." A post
mortem examination two days later revealed the full horror of what had
happened. Researcher Bacon had been a victim of pneumonic plague, a
form of the fiercely contagious Black Death that ravaged Europe in the
Middle Ages, slaughtering millions and depopulating whole cities.